Latvia was home to numerous factories with goal to maintain and fix the Soviet war equipment, vehicles and aircraft. Even the Latvian civil factories were subjected to assist the Soviet industrial military complex, large part of their production were allocated to military needs. Cekule, Garkalne, Inčukalns, Mangaļsala were Soviet arms depots filled with mines, reactive weapons and ordinary equipment just in case of war. Airfields were many locations: Liepāja, Tukums, Vaiņode, Jelgava, Lielvārde, Jēkabpils and other places. Strategical rockets were placed in many places notably Zeltiņi near Alūksne. With such large concentration of the Soviet forces in case of the nuclear strike Latvia would be wiped from the face of the earth.
Soviets took away large plots of land from the local farmers to build their bases. Many spaces were polluted. The infamous Zvārde firing ground was for years used for the Soviet aviation tests. Even today the areas around Zvārde are dangerous because of the blind shells hidden in the ground. At the Tukums Airfield nuclear weapons were placed and kept until the fall of the Soviet Union. Also the pollution from the chemical weapons are present at some places.
